Using Audio to Track Movements of Suspected Sasquatch

[Rebelistic]

Using Audio to Track Movements of Suspected Sasquatch.

We all know how neat it is to capture what we think is calls of Sasquatch. It truly is a thrill and can make the hair on the back of your neck stand up and give you goose bumps.

But audio can be very useful in other ways. One thing I have been doing over the last year has been placing the recorders on what I suspect is their markers. Why? Because I am trying to figure out where their travel corridors are and what method they may be marked with. By no means has it become conclusive yet, but the results have been pretty good.

Here is what I do. First I set up on a suspected common markers found in my area. The one here that seems to give the best results are pointers. I placed a remote unattended parabolic set up parallel to it. In doing so, when there were sounds and movement that is usually associated with Sasquatch such as knocks and howls recorded it gives a starting spot. Now as you know there are a lot of strike outs with audio and nights in the woods so staying consistent on markers for several recording sessions are needed to find out which markers give you what you are looking for. Then when I found one that seemed to produce the most suspected sounds, I will shift the second remote recorder to another similar marker in the area quite a distance from it. Then see if the sounds are caught on both recorders at different times of the night.

It is quite exciting to get where knocks etc. start faint at one recorder, get louder as they get closer and then faint as they continue to wander past, only to be picked up by the next recorder and it follows the same pattern as it did in the first. And then to check times on the recorders and they match as the suspected sounds travel through the area. It gives a real good idea of which directions they travel and where you can put boots to the ground to look for other evidence.

Now this is a very time consuming venture. I am now usually setting up 2 remote recording set ups along their markers and one in the area we decide to set up camp. So if you do the math it is easy to see that if you record with 3 recorders for 10 hours a night that means 30 hours of audio review. And if you are wanting to catch suspected subtle sounds that means a true minute to minute, hour to hour review while taking notes of each and comparing times when the sounds occurred. The Sony recorder I use as remote recorders time stamp each file so it is way to see what times things happen at each recorder. It is not for everyone, however it seems to work for me. But once you can get a better idea of when and where they travel in the area, it makes it a lot easier to get what we are looking for.

Anybody with limited ability to do a lot of walking, this can be a real rewarding way of doing things and contributing to the Bigfoot Community as well as having more productive boots on the ground time. You can catch audio that can be a lot different than the "classic" howls, screams, etc. and get a better understanding of how they travel in their areas. And for me it can be done on a limited budget. I think with time, we will be able to get a better understanding of what certain sounds mean. Here it seems like the knocks are a way of locating where others are as they are traveling or foraging in the area. It is truly exciting when things start making more sense of what they are doing.

One other thing that can make this difficult is after the review of the audio, you have to go through and compare what you classify as unknown with rare vocals of known animals. Again very time consuming. There has been several times where I have recorded sounds that I suspected was Sasquatch ended up be odd vocals of knowns. By sharing what you find with other researchers can really help out with that. Each researcher can have more of known animals in their areas so they will be more familiar with their sounds. Hunters can also be an asset. What you have left is possible Sasquatch vocal. And when you get them recorded more than once in the same area it is even more of a thrill!

One other thing I do is ALWAYS keep the raw files and written notes from ALL the recording sessions. More than once I have recorded a sound that is distant and not real clear. Just to later get the same recording closer and more clear. Being able to go back and compare makes it easier to determine what critter is making the sound. When the day comes where science does finally does accept Sasquatch as a reality, having the raw files for backing up the audio will hold more weight for them if they can validate it from the raw file. If you happen to get interest from another researcher it also helps to have the data for them if they question the audio. We all have heard and seen so may things out there that are questionable to say the least. I have inquired on some of them and it is amazing of how the hoaxers will not be able to produce the raw so it can be reviewed in context.

Granted saving 40+ Gigs of old audio files does take some room but if they are put to flash drives or SD cards it doesn't have to take up all the room on your computer. It is always best to have everything backed up anyway in case of a computer crash. Yes. It can be a pain at times, but if you should ever be questioned on it you have the data to back it up. On a couple of occasions I have been asked on clips of mine as to being authentic and by being willing to produce the raw data for the person's review did make a big difference. They no longer thought I was nuts! At least not that they were out there, but they still thought I was nuts for going out there at night and doing what I am doing.

In my opinion no one piece of audio, video, thermal, print cast or anything shy of a body recovered from the woods will conclusively prove that they are out there. However, with collecting those do make a much stronger case when they can be used together.

[admin]

Author: Holotype [ Sat Jan 11, 2014 12:29 am ]
Post subject: Re: Using Audio to Track Movements of Suspected Sasquatch
Rebel ,i would also get a copy of logic express and import your waves into your computer. You can see the waveforms ,and it would take less time .You can scroll through it with less time just look for interesting peaks to playback. Better yet go to your local Guitar center and buy a pro tools mbox ,about 300 buck. It has the converters to get your waves into the computer . And all kinds of eqs compressors , noisegates to manipulate your audio. plus you can get plugins to do special tasks ,such as noise reduction .

Author: Holotype [ Sat Jan 11, 2014 12:46 am ]
Post subject: Re: Using Audio to Track Movements of Suspected Sasquatch
Also loading all your different recorders wavs on different tracks from a nights session could be interesting to playback at the same time . You could sync them by setting them all up recording , then make one wood knock. this would let you line up all tracks by that wavform. wouldnt be perfect because of the delay, but close. you could also pan each track across the stereo field ,one center ,one left and right ,and all places in between . also flip the phase 180 degrees on some tracks . you might get some really cool things happen.

Author: Holotype [ Sat Jan 11, 2014 12:55 am ]
Post subject: Re: Using Audio to Track Movements of Suspected Sasquatch
Getting mbox with the good coverters would let you playback higher resolution files 24bit 96 khz . but only if you record them at those rates . Computers will down sample to 16 bit 44.1 khz at playback. even if it is recorded at a higher rate.

Author: Rebelistic [ Sat Jan 11, 2014 10:17 am ]
Post subject: Re: Using Audio to Track Movements of Suspected Sasquatch
Great ideas Holotype! The one I currently use on the computer to do the editing is Audacity. It does show a waveform, however with the more distant and subtle sounds it usually does show up on that waveform that is why I listen at actual minute to minute speed. I have thought at times to get some sort of equalizer of some sort to filter out some of the background sounds and the wind noise. Audacity does have filter but sometimes they don't seem sufficient. As time goes along I am wanting to upgrade the recorders as I can. Overall this has been a whole bunch of fun and a way of getting some interesting audio. It was quite a thrill the first time I recorded a wolf howling where the DNR says there are no wolves.

Author: ladyinwaiting [ Mon Feb 03, 2014 12:46 pm ]
Post subject: Re: Using Audio to Track Movements of Suspected Sasquatch
I did this too and it works. Three recorders, spaced a half mile apart. Over a period of many months I kept adjusting the recorder locations (going by distant & close sounds) and had many trial and errors until I got it right, then I was able to figure out where they bed v where they play and hunt.

I also came to realize that they are very predicable and are really no different than us, meaning they are creatures of habit.

For example; I was able to determine they bed down at the NW area of the 8k acre parcel that I research, and every morning for the last year, at about an hour before daybreak, a potent wood knock goes out from this NW area which signals the 2 young ones, its time to start heading back... as crazy as that sounds, it's consistent in the recordings and I've been lucky enough (at my most SE audio recorder) which has picked up a heavyset runner, clearly running northwest after the knock. This particular pre-daybreak knock always sounds like a baseball bat being struck on a mental pole with a tremendous amount of force behind it... it's a different sounding knock than all the other wood knocks and I suspect this is daddy.

I was also able to determine that the one which I believe to be the male juvenile sits in an old cellar hole waiting for game to wander by, and it seems to work for him since I've captured deep guttural growls, bipedal running and game being killed on audio.

They are just so fascinating!